Wireless computing technologies provide untethered access to the Internet and other networks. One of the most critical technologies for wireless networking (or Wi-Fi) is the IEEE 802.11 family of protocols promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Currently, the protocols are widely adopted in wireless devices such as laptop computers, tablet computers, smart phones, and network appliances.
Wireless devices complying with standards such as IEEE 802.11ac increases the maximum bandwidth capability for wireless networks relative to IEEE 802.11n. Increased bandwidth allows an individual access point or mobile station to potentially send and receive data at a higher rate. In particular, IEEE 802.11ac increases the maximum payload for a packet of IEEE 802.11n from 64 kbyte to 1 Mbyte.
Problematically, there is currently no technique to utilize the full capacity of 1 Mb transmission capacity. Current aggregation technologies under IEEE 802.11n are able to combine up to 64 packets, each of which carries a payload of typically 1,500 bytes but not exceeding 2304 bytes. However, many packets have little or no payloads (e.g., service packets). Even if all 64 packets carried a maximum payload, the total of 147 kbyte utilizes the maximum capacity under the previous IEEE 802.11n standard, but is consumes less than 15% of the newer IEEE 802.11ac standard.
What is needed is a robust technique to optimize more of the payload capacity offered by IEEE 802.11ac and similar standards by aggregating payloads.